FAYETTEVILLE — A federal lawsuit claiming detainees at the Washington County Jail were given ivermectin to treat covid without their knowledge nor consent was settled for $10,000, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas.
The lawsuit contends detainees were given ivermectin as early as November 2020 and didn’t become aware of what the treatment was until July 2021.
Ivermectin is an FDA-approved drug to address parasitic infestations such as intestinal worms and head lice and some skin conditions, such as rosacea. It isn’t — and wasn’t at the time — approved to treat covid-19.
Plaintiffs in the case include Edrick Floreal-Wooten, Jeremiah Little, Julio Gonzales, Thomas Fritch and Dayman Blackburn. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union last year against Dr. Robert Karas, Karas Correctional Health, former Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder and the Washington County Detention Center.
The $10,000 settlement is being split among the five plaintiffs who’ll receive $2,000 each.
As part of the agreement, the payment isn’t to be construed as an admission of any liability on the part of any of the parties who were sued.
“These men are incredibly courageous and resilient to stand up to the abusive, inhumane experimentation they endured at the Washington County Detention Center,” ACLU of Arkansas Executive Director Holly Dickson said in a news release.
“The experimental use of ivermectin without the knowledge and consent of these patients was a grave violation of medical ethics and the rights of the patients and these brave clients prevented further violation of not only their own rights, but those of others detained” in the Washington County jail, Dickson said.
Washington County Attorney Brian Lester said Thursday the county pays into the risk management fund maintained by the Association of Arkansas Counties and any settlement in the lawsuit would have been handled by the association. No money in any settlement would come from the county’s general fund, Lester said.
U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks entered an order dismissing the lawsuit Friday, citing the settlement agreement.
Brooks denied a motion for summary judgment in the case filed by Helder, Karas and Karas Correctional Health in March.
In a written opinion, Brooks said Karas used detainees for an experiment of his own using a drug not approved for that purpose. Brooks said in the opinion Karas began conducting his own research and hypothesized the drug ivermectin could be an effective treatment for covid-19.
Karas prescribed ivermectin to two sets of test subjects. The first set was composed of people who sought out Karas’ services at his private medical clinic and agreed to take ivermectin as part of an experimental treatment for covid-19, Brooks noted. The second set was composed of detainees at the jail.
“The inmates received Dr. Karas’s treatment protocol for covid-19, but did not know it included ivermectin,” Brooks wrote. “Dr. Karas and his staff falsely told the inmates the treatment consisted of mere ‘vitamins,’ ‘antibiotics,’ and/or ‘steroids.’ Critically, the inmates had no idea they were part of Dr. Karas’ experiment.”
Since the detainees were never told their covid “treatments” contained ivermectin, they were never warned about the drug’s side effects, Brooks said. In addition, Karas hypothesized large doses of ivermectin would be most effective in combating covid-19.
The problem, however, was the FDA only approved a dosage of 0.2 mg/kg to treat worms, according to Brooks. Karas ultimately prescribed lower doses of ivermectin to his clinic patients and higher doses to his imprisoned patients.
“At first reading, it would seem highly unlikely — even implausible — that a doctor would have dosed his incarcerated patients with an experimental drug more aggressively than his private patients, but plaintiffs point to proof in their jail medical records,” Brooks wrote.
Brooks said the courts haven’t hesitated to find that, where the human research subjects weren’t told they were participating in an experiment and/or the government conducted the experiments knowing they had no therapeutic value, the subject’s constitutionally protected right to life and/or liberty had been violated.
“Separately, the court finds that the facts in the amended complaint, if true, shock the conscience,” Brooks wrote.
The Arkansas State Medical Board voted to take no action against Karas in June 2022.
Karas, in a follow-up motion for summary judgment filed in July, disputed he was experimenting on detainees.
That motion argued if a drug is approved by the FDA for one purpose, it’s permissible to use the drug for other purposes at a physician’s discretion.
“Plaintiffs appear to espouse an incorrect theory that the FDA prohibits the use of ivermectin (which is indisputably approved by the FDA for other uses in humans) for treatment of covid-19,” the motion said.
“The truth is, there are numerous studies indicating that ivermectin possesses anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties and benefits to treat covid-19. The undisputed factual record before this court now indicates it was precisely this research that Dr. Karas relied upon in developing a protocol to treat inmate patients and private clinic patients,” according to the motion.
In a September court filing, Karas contended ACLU attorneys used the term “experiment” to impugn Karas in national news media coverage by saying he engaged in a “medical experiment” or “medical experimentation” on detainees.
Washington County’s Quorum Court in February 2022 approved a resolution by a 9-4 vote praising Karas for his treatment of detainees and staff during the covid pandemic, saying “the numbers and effects of the virus have been largely exaggerated” with an estimated death rate of 0.5% in the U.S.
The resolution said there had been more than 850 cases of the infection in the jail with no deaths.